Down on the Farm

Minor League Player of the Day: Robert Stephenson allowed just one unearned run and struck out 8 over 5 innings despite not having location of his fastball. Details below and in the milb.com front page news story.

Daniel Corcino was pulled in the 4th inning of a 1-1 tie game with two on and two out. The runners did not scored, and Corcino’s final line was just 1 run allowed on 4 hits but 5 walks with 3 strikeouts.

I’m a little surprised that Zach Duke (24.2 IP in 23 games, 19 H, 4 BB, 27 K) was not the reliever to get the call when Jonathan Broxton hit the DL this week. Duke got the last out of the 4th inning and went on to pitch 2 scoreless innings with a hit, a walk and two strikeouts. Pedro Villarreal added two scoreless innings in relief with no hits, one walk, and three strikeouts.

Mike Hessman (2-for-4) hit his 23rd homerun of the year and also doubled. Billy Hamilton (2-for-4) stole his 73rd base of the season and scored twice. Neftali Soto (2-for-4) doubled, scored a run, and knocked in a run. Henry Rodriguez (2-for-4) also had a pair of hits, and continued his torrid August (.403/.457/.444).

In his second AA start, Robert Stephenson made milb.com front page news for not having his best stuff. Stephenson allowed only one unearned run on 5 hits and 3 walks while striking out 8.

“Actually, things weren’t going too well,” the 20-year-old right-hander said. “I didn’t have very good control over my fastball, I was all over the place with it. I got kind of lucky, having my curveball tonight, that kind of saved me. My catcher [Tucker Barnhart] did an outstanding job tonight, and without him, I would have given up a couple of runs.

“It’s a good learning experience, especially learning how to deal with adversity. I think it’s very important. I think it’s a positive. It’s nice to have success, but I think the struggles are where you learn a lot.”

The full article is definitely worth the read and mentions Stephenson’s goals of reaching the major league team next year.

Stephenson and Redleg Nation Spotlight Player Tucker Barnhart combined to gun down the only Huntsville base theft attempt. Barnhart (1-for-3, BB) and Mike Costanzo (1-for-3, BB) were the only Pensacola players to reach based more than once. Ryan LaMarre tripled in the 6th inning and scored on Costanzo’s single for the only Pensacola run.

Dalton Carter was 2-for-5 with a solo homerun in the 9th inning to tie the game at 1-1. Kevin Franklin also had a pair of hits in six at-bats. Leadoff hitter Kevin Garcia (1-for-4, 2B, two BB) reached base three times and scored the Reds second run in the top of the 12th inning.

The amount that Corcino has fallen…there has to be injury concerns at this point, right? I never really considered him a prospect, but this is crazy.

Stephenson makes it a lot easier to watch one of Bailey, Cueto, or Latos get traded, or let them walk. I’m partial to extending Latos & then making the decision whether to trade Cueto or Bailey based who nets you a higher return, but that’s just me.

@TC: I’m on my phone so I can’t verify a lot of this so I apologize. I’m not sure what you said is accurate, but I could be wrong. Certainly not in 2011 when Chapman, Grandal, Alonso, Hamilton, and Mesoraco (and other guys like Cozart, Fracisco, Frazier) were all prospects. I don’t even think Corcino was a top 10 guy then.

After the Latos trade in 2012, Corcino entered the top 5 organizational “prosopects”, but it said more about the Reds than Corcino imo. The national rankings never gave Corcino much love. I think this year was the first year Corcino showed up on BA’s top 100 list, and it was somewhere in the 90s. Even then, I remember one of their analysts basically projecting him to be a #4 starting pitcher.

I probably should have said that I never considered Corcino to be an “impact” prospect. He’s defnitely still a prospect in the sense that he could provide some value to the organization. With the exception of 2011, his peripherals just were never that good. I’m still scratching my head why he was moved up from AA. He’s still young though, so plenty of time to make me look stupid.

I believe he was promoted to AAA in order to push him along. This was for two reasons. I think the Reds saw the prospect rankings and believed them. Plus, this is a magic 6th year in the minors. They’ll need to put him on the 40-man roster before the Winter Meetings this December. Best see what you’ve got now.

@reaganspad: I agree the Reds need a hitter, but I have to disagree with the pieces you want to move.

Leake is a better value than either Latos and Bailey. He’s been as good as them for most of the the year and will remain cheaper.

But really, here is why I disagree. Why do you want to trade the second best defensive catcher in the league who had the second highest OBP on the Reds team up until this year for an unproven prospect in AA. Oh, and at $2M per year Hannigan is a bargain. Plus, I see value in having Hannigan eventually join a coaching staff somewhere in the Reds organization.

@TC: Well things get interesting when Latos, Cueto, and Leake all hit free agency in 2016. They’ll have already chosen whether to keep Bailey or not, so that seems to be the decision point. I think they have to do everything they can to keep Latos. They’ll have him through his prime years, pretty much the perfect set up. Ideally, they’d sign him to a long term contract this offseason, and lock him up from age 26-33 or something like that. A rotation of Latos, Bailey/Cueto, Stephenson, Cingrani, whoever is extremely good.

I agree with comments regarding Hanigan. Hanigan is cheap (it’ll be realllllllly interesting to see his contract go to arbitration this offseason). He’s pretty much the ideal backup for Mesoraco. Barnhart hasn’t hit at all in the minors (sorry guys, you cannot put a lot of faith in stats from Bakersfield. Everyone hits in the California League.) Barnhart makes Hanigan look like he has pop.

@TC: I am just not sold on Leake’s stuff and think that this year he is over-achieving. He is cheap as you mention, and when teams trade, they want to control a player, same as we do.

First of all, Leake is no Latos. and really, he is no Bailey either. Bailey with Leake’s run support would have a much different record

Leake is prone to the big inning, including the 4 spot with an 8 run lead. He is very hittable when the ump does not call him correctly. now I know that is an issue with the ump, but Leake does not do great without the zone being called right every game, and when he misses, big crooked numbers go up. Like him but don’t love him. he is trade material.

Hannigan is a very good catcher. An important commodity in baseball. Mesoraco has proven that he is the starter and and is a much better bat. We can either sign a back up catcher (like Navarro last year) or have someone like Barnhart split the time. 2.0 mil is a lot for a back up catcher, money that I would rather have for Bailey

@reaganspad: These are the same things we said about Bailey until midway through the year last year. It’s true that Leake cannot hit 98 MPH. That is something that will always gives Bailey more upside. I don’t disagree strongly on this point.

I think regarding Hannigan we are just going to have to disagree. That happens from time to time on this site I guess. I really like Barnhart. I see value in him as a prospect so don’t misunderstand. I just see a lot of value in Hannigan, much more than a AA prospect. Barnhart is going to have to earn a lot more respect and Hannigan is going to have to lose some.

Has anyone heard if the Reds are entertaining the idea of moving their rookie team out of Billings to move it somewhere that is closer to Dayton? The Reds have been in Billings for years. Having the rookie team somewhere near Reds country would be a nice idea.

That’s the thing. Marshall University/Huntington are building a new baseball stadium and they are wanting to co-op with a minor league team in the App. League. I keep hearing the Reds might be interested. A brand new stadium. Billings has a new stadium now too, opened in 2008. But Huntington would be right here in Reds country and a short hop to Dayton. It would seem that it would be a better crowd draw in Huntington than Billings since they would be drawing from a bigger Reds base. It would be extremely cool to have the Reds rookie team within driving distance of many Reds fans.